The man who died in Cambridgeshire was driving a car when it left the road shortly before 17:00 GMT on Saturday and went into a river near Earith.

He was pulled from the water by a member of the public and attended to by a paramedic but was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.

And Devon and Cornwall Police said the dead woman was seriously injured when a tree fell on her in Western Way at about 23:50 GMT. She died after being taken to hospital in Exeter. Three other people were treated for minor injuries.

As well as the severe flood warning and flood warnings across England and Wales, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Sepa, has two flood alerts in place. There are none in Northern Ireland.

Chris Fawkes from the BBC Weather Centre said there had been about 60 mm of rain in the last 24 hours in south-west England.

He said: "A weather front will slowly move across north England and north Wales Sunday night and Monday, and it's here that we are likely to see some further serious flooding."

The government must act to make sure people aren't left without insurance when the worst does happenStephen Gilbert, Lib Dem MP

The Met Office has issued an Amber weather warning for 50 to 70 mm (2-3 in) of rain by the end of Monday.

An Amber warning has also been issued for north Wales, with 50 to 70 mm of rain expected, locally 90 mm over hills.

Earlier, environment minister Richard Benyon said he was "impressed with how the emergency services and Environment Agency have responded" to wet weather.

"What we learned for the floods in 2007 has been invaluable and what the local authorities are doing with the emergency services has helped," he said.

The minister added: "We are better prepared, but no one is taking away from the misery that these floods have causes or the threat of further floods. You can only feel sorry for those people.

"Our estimate is that about 20,000 homes have been protected by flood defences that have built in the past few years."

Meanwhile, Stephen Gilbert, the Liberal Democrat MP for St Austell and Newquay, said the events of the last two days "should be a wake-up call for a government that needs to grip this issue and do so quickly".

"We know that flash flooding is increasing because of climate change and there's now little we can do to stop it, but the government must act to make sure people aren't left without insurance when the worst does happen," he said.